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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28310265">a fireside chat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/murakumounits/pseuds/murakumounits'>murakumounits</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>No More Heroes (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, F/F, GHM Secret Santa 2020, Teasing, mostly banter some action, rated for language and source material, there are implications, travmuiman is implied, waffle house au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:34:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,213</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28310265</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/murakumounits/pseuds/murakumounits</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shinobu and Bad Girl catch up by the fire.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bad Girl/Shinobu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a fireside chat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this is a Secret Santa fic offering for saltdere! hope you like it, and happy holidays to anyone and everyone reading this. with that, let's gooooooo</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the middle of the night, and Charlotte Birkin was wide awake. The shitty otaku and her dad were off meeting up with some Jabroni at a Waffle House about three hours west of here- Badman had apologetically mumbled something about milkshakes before speeding off with his boytoy on some fucked up triple date in his old beater, leaving his only surviving daughter on Death Drive Guard Duty. Resigned to only having the chirping of crickets and howls of displaced wolves for company, Bad Girl cracked open a beer pilfered from the otherwise bare mini-fridge; taking a sip, she eyed the sole seating in the trailer- a comfortable armchair currently occupied by Jeane. The blonde considered moving the otaku’s erstwhile companion, but one of Jeane’s small eyes was open and trained on her- Charlotte was pretty sure that if she made a move to toss her out of the chair, she would be met with sharp claws to the face. Deciding it was too much trouble, she sat on the edge of the trailer, lifting the can to her lips and staring dead-eyed out at the forest around her.</p>
<p>The evergreens around them were not thick enough to completely mask Texas’ wide velvet expanse of nothing, and Charlotte’s eyes were immediately drawn to the constellation of Cassiopeia hanging in the sky. The story of the woman lounging off of her throne in one season, dangling off of it precariously in another- she kept her eyes fixed on the collection of pinpricks for a long while, drinking steadily from her can, before draining it, grabbing another, and eyeing the Schpeltiger’s sole seat.</p>
<p>If it was Cassiopeia’s turn to suffer, Charlotte figured she could take a load off in her honor; the woman sauntered over to the bike, straddling it backwards before laying down, head resting against the odometer.</p>
<p>The bike was comfortable enough- Travis had clearly put most of his ill-gotten LBs towards investing in the long term viability of his vehicle. Distressed leather supported her torso as she stretched her right leg out over the back wheel, her calf coming to rest on the steel casing; smiling to herself, she once again found the constellation of the wretched queen and opened her second beer. If she was going to be alone on night watch, she might as well be plastered- not like anything on this side of the Rockies was going to give an assassin of her caliber any trouble, drunk or not.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Shinobu was careful to cover her tracks as she approached the trailer. She knew that she had been followed before to Travis’ abode, but figured that exercising caution was still for the best in these matters- while the permanent residents of the trailer generally were able to take care of themselves, the one thing they collectively lacked was a head for non-ostentatious self-preservation. The brushes with literal death would do that to someone, she supposed, careful to make very little sound as she neared her destination.</p>
<p>As the trailer came into view, Shinobu’s gaze settled on a fully inebriated Bad Girl, back turned away from her, testing the limits of her flexibility on Travis’ bike. Eyebrow raised, she crossed her arms and looked to the dying embers of the campfire before surreptitiously gathering more firewood, placing it gingerly in the firepit. This action, with crackling wood and a plume of displaced ashes, made Bad Girl whip around, grab her bat, and grin at the prospect of a fight.</p>
<p>“Who the fuck—oh, it’s you,” Charlotte said, relaxing her grip, rolling her eyes, and settling back into a reclined position on the bike. She casually tossed her bat towards the trailer, the heavy wood coming to a thud in the dirt in front of Travis’ abode. “Here to meditate or whatever? The guys are out, don’t let me stop you.”</p>
<p>Unrattled by Bad Girl’s first words spoken directly to her in a decade, Shinobu stepped into the trailer, gave Jeane a nod, and opened the mini fridge, inserting a half gallon of milk from her overnight bag and taking out one of the few beers left. The younger assassin figured that since Charlotte was up at this hour, she wasn’t going to be resting at any near point in the future; if the two of them were alone, they could chat, given that the blonde seemed amenable enough to company. Shinobu cared for the children at the dojo, but an adult that wasn’t some gamer like Travis… at this point, she was more than a little desperate for human contact that didn’t have the veneer of transaction.</p>
<p>Even if it was from a bloodthirsty lunatic, staring at her with one wild eye, humming a small song to herself.</p>
<p>… <em>okay, maybe she was a little on her guard.</em></p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Charlotte kept one eye on Shinobu as the latter descended to the outer edge of the trailer, her right hand lazily palming the can of Chiller7. She still had to get used to this body, but being a reanimated once-electrified corpse had it’s upsides- Charlotte felt faster than she ever had in that stuffy old basement, and her feet didn’t ache all the time from being in those damn heels her agent would always make her wear on camera. Lifting the can to her lips, she tried not to think about the scar tissue punctuating her ribcage, a stark reminder of the time her title as Santa’s Destroy’s queen of murder was wrestled from her.</p>
<p>“Pretty neat that the otaku let you live,” Charlotte claimed at large, looking for any shift in Shinobu’s expression at this generous distance. “But I guess if he’d cut off my swinging arm, I might consider asking the guy to not be a dick about winning.”</p>
<p>Shinobu shook her head, taking a drink with her organic hand while examining it’s mechanical counterpart. “Not that it matters, but that’s not how I remember it. Pretty sure I asked Master to kill me, but he refused. Better in the long run that he didn’t--”</p>
<p>Bad Girl let out a bark of laughter. “What, you <em>seriously </em>call him Master when he isn’t around? This dipshit?” She adjusted her position on the bike to a straddle, ignoring it’s protests as it supported her weight in earnest. “You know that he doesn’t deserve that kind of respect from someone that’s been around as long as you. Judging by the whole hermit thing he’s got going on here,” Charlotte gestured at the empty forest around them, taking another swig of her beer. “I’d say that there’s plenty more this asshole needs to work through before he starts getting together a team with your kinda talent on it.”</p>
<p>Shinobu’s brow twitched as she heard Bad Girl’s claims. “Someone that’s been dead for years doesn’t really have a lot of leeway for this kind of conversation. You don’t know him.” The girl said, her voice just low enough to carry in stark contrast to Charlotte’s open bursts. The blonde smirked, running her free hand through her hair to pull her hair tie out, letting it spill around her face as it tumbled in golden locks towards the ground. The small crown on her head (fixed upon it by some miracle of Unreal Engine modeling and otherworldly tiger power) stayed put despite her action, and Shinobu tried to look anywhere but directly into Bad Girl’s crazed eyes.</p>
<p>“Do you?”</p>
<p>An uncomfortable silence.</p>
<p>Charlotte’s eyes fixed upon Shinobu’s frame, and there was a long moment where the two women were completely still before Charlotte finished her beer in one go, crunched the empty vessel against the side of Travis’ prized bike, and sauntered towards the younger assassin. Shinobu’s eyes were drawn to Charlotte’s legs- it was a mystery how someone with her kill count in the annals of the UAA could look so lithe, so delicate, even knowing what sort of carnage the other woman was capable of. Shaking her head and forcefully exiting that train of thought, Shinobu found Charlotte descending next to her on the edge of the trailer, stealing Shinobu’s warming beer from her and opening it in one fluid motion.</p>
<p>“So tell me, do you always shirk your duties like this?” Shinobu asked, a hiss sounding over the low crackling of their campfire as Charlotte took a swig before handing it back to her. The blonde didn’t answer verbally, letting her head hang back, shaking out her dull, dry hair and crossing her legs, stretching her body out as far as she could before laying back on the floor of the trailer.</p>
<p>“Figure since you’re here, I have even less to worry about than normal. If a bear comes, cool, we get free dinner.” She shrugged, tracing one gloved finger along Shinobu’s exposed spine.</p>
<p>“I’m almost certain there aren’t bears in this neck of Texas.”</p>
<p>Charlotte stared at Shinobu before her expression broke into a smirk as she propped herself up on one arm, closing the distance between them. “You are <em>so </em>tense, it’s funny. You know that this jackoff is a washed up old fuck, yet you still come and play messenger from… who, exactly? Sylvia or whatever?”</p>
<p>Shinobu crossed her arms, not sure if this was Charlotte’s attempt at honest conversation or a lead up to something more. “Sylvia not withstanding, I come here because I want to. Master still has things he needs to do in Santa Destroy.”</p>
<p>“Master this, Sylvia that… I think you come here because you don’t have anything better to do with your weekends. Scene all dried up in Santa Destroy? Sure hope not,” Bad Girl sighed, her hand pressing a little more <em>insistently </em>at Shinobu’s back, “I’d hate for my throne to be taken up by someone who didn’t have the bloodlust to back it up.”</p>
<p>Shinobu took pause. “… Santa Destroy is the same as it always was. You don’t have to concern yourself with what happens there.”</p>
<p>Charlotte shrugged in response, her hand trailing up Shinobu’s spine, stopping just short of the hem of her top. “Well, if it’s just us here… don’t think I didn’t notice you checking out my legs earlier. Why don’t I show you how to lighten up a bit? Stop being so fucking god-damn <em>serious </em>all the time?”</p>
<p>Shinobu’s brow raised at Bad Girl’s line of questioning; facing the strawberry blonde in earnest, Scarlett’s guard had been taken out completely by Charlotte’s observation “But aren’t Travis and—”</p>
<p>Charlotte shushed her with a swift kiss on the mouth, pushing her tongue inside before Shinobu could recognize what was happening. Bad Girl tasted like liquor, smoke, and the faintest hint of mushrooms- experience was the first thing that came to mind when it came to the older woman’s ministrations, and the surprising warmth of her mouth caught Scarlet off guard even further. Yet, after a long moment to allow the kiss to settle into something more mutual, the development wasn’t unwelcome; they lingered there on the floor of the trailer, Shinobu answering Charlotte’s demands with more measured responses of running her hands through long, blonde locks, letting Bad Girl take the lead.</p>
<p>“They’re off having their own fun,” Charlotte breathed, breaking the kiss after an agonizingly long time, holding Shinobu by the chin with one hand and the small of her back in the other. “And I’m feeling a little bored. Since you’re here and I’m bored as fuck, why don’t we find another way to pass the time?” Charlotte got up with a small flourish, giving Shinobu the opportunity for another close look at her legs as she threw her gloves on the floor, stepping towards the one washroom in their vicinity.</p>
<p>“This hardly seems appropriate—” Shinobu stammered, trying to will her blush away and disappear entirely into the earth beneath them. Bad Girl still had that infuriating grin on her face, tilting her head towards the younger assassin, her crown glinting in the firelight.</p>
<p>“Fuck that. You’re an assassin, aren’t you? Take the opportunity, have some fun before some rube comes up in front of you and slices you in two. I’ll be waiting,” Bad Girl said, stepping into the restroom. “And if you’re lucky, I’ll show you just what I’m capable of.”</p>
<p>Shinobu looked at Charlotte’s form disappear with a wink into the bathroom, drained the remainder of her beer, bit her lower lip, and shot off a quick text before taking Bad Girl up on her offer.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>“You think we should bring something back?” Travis said, picking at Kamui’s plate of fries before taking a gulp of lukewarm coffee. Shigeki shook his head, swallowing a mouthful of hash browns and coughing before speaking.</p>
<p>“The black girl texted me. Said to take our time and give ‘em a bit.”</p>
<p>“A bit? What the hell would those two talk about, anyway?” Travis scowled- he knew that if he were gone for too long, Jeane would give him hell for not cleaning out the litterbox before he left. Kamui looked between the two, waiting for the assassin to connect the dots.</p>
<p>“From the tone of that text,” Badman said in a measured monotone, “I don’t think they’re going to be doing a lot of talking.”</p>
<p>Travis shrugged, sipping on Kamui’s milkshake. “… Well, whatever. As long as they don’t trash the place.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i'm glad i could throw a hint of travis/badman/kamui in there as well. they ate their waffles peacefully. all is good in the hood.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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